In the Shadows
by Team Dragon Star
Summary: Before Planet Vegeta is annihilated, Bardock manages to sneak a message to Raditz. Empowered by his father's words, Raditz decides to head to Earth and protect his brother, rewriting his destiny in the process. AU.


**Disclaimer: Team Dragon Star does not own Dragon Ball Z.**

 **This chapter was brought to you by Soullegend60.**

A scarred Saiyan warrior ran down the tiled hallway of the hospital. He was in a rush, running toward possibly the biggest fight of his life. That was an understatement, as Bardock was looking to complete the most significant task of his life. He had failed to read the signs and now it was too late.

His planet was doomed.

The Saiyan had formulated a plan in his head. He was going to muscle his way to Frieza and then he was going to put his all into an attack that would end the tyrant. Frieza was powerful, but Bardock knew he possessed great power himself. If the ruler of the Galaxy feared his power then he must have been stronger than he thought. He would defeat the monster known as Frieza.

… But there was always the off chance that the tyrant _was_ stronger than he assumed.

What if he couldn't kill the Arcosian?

Bardock was suddenly gone from the white corridors of the hallway; he now found himself in the infinite void of space. Several hundred meters ahead of him was a planet he recognised to be his homeworld. Near it was an all-too familiar spaceship. Hundreds of humanoids floated in the space between the planet and the PTO vessel.

 _Is that me?_

Bardock then teleported much closer to the action. He could now clearly see himself talking to Frieza with an army behind him. His mind registered that this was a vision.

 _I understand now! It's my destiny to overthrow Frieza! I'm going to raise an army and confront him… Then I'll kill him! My race isn't going to die out because I shall be the one to save it!_

The vision continued. Bardock watched himself give a speech to Frieza. He couldn't hear what he was saying but the cocky look on his own face told him that he must be saying monumental words that he was clearly relishing. He had always hated the fact that they worked for Frieza, and Bardock assumed that this version of himself was just spurred on by how good it felt to _really_ tell Frieza how he felt about him and put the midget in his place. He grinned as he watched himself charge up his most powerful attack.

 _It's over then. He won't survive my strongest attack._

Wrong. The pink tyrant took the full force of the attack without even flinching. Bardock watched on in shock as Frieza proceeded to destroy Planet Vegeta. The Arcosian truly was stronger than him; he had ended Bardock with a bored look on his face.

 _What am I meant to do then? I can't defeat Frieza in battle, and no one listens to me when I tell them Frieza's on his way!_

The scene changed once more. Bardock saw himself and a green man attacking… Raditz? Wait, that wasn't him, but he could tell it wasn't his brother either. That left Kakarot, which made sense since he could see an older version of his other son as well, but why were they fighting on this strange, alien planet? He was confused, but he never got a chance to process before both Raditz and Kakarot dropped dead. His sons had killed each other! Not that Bardock really cared about them but- wait, how were they alive? Planet Vegeta was destined to die!

It was too late. Bardock would never get answers because the vision faded away and the Saiyan found himself back in the hospital. "Fuck!" He swore. What was he meant to do? If he fought Frieza, he would inevitably die. Then his sons would manage to escape but it meant nothing as they would ultimately kill each other. Bardock thought hard,

 _Let's see here… Well they did kill each other, but, something was off. Raditz seems to be fine; he looked like the average Saiyan. But Kakarot… Something was off about him. He wore stupid clothes and it looked like he was working with that alien in order to kill Raditz. What could have happened to Kakarot to make him so weird? And what the hell happened to his tail?_

The gears started to turn in Bardock's head as he tried his damndest to understand what was going on. Minutes went by as he began to connect the dots.

Kakarot wore strange clothes and was working with an alien against Raditz, who was dressed in standard PTO armour. They fought on a lush, alien planet, the likes of which Bardock had never seen.

 _Kakarot having lost his tail… It's just so unnatural! One cannot call themselves a Saiyan if they don't have a tail, and Kakarot lacked any pride when he fought. He was acting like some lowlife loser, how can he even consider himself a Saiyan?_

Bardock slapped his forehead in realisation. That was it! Kakarot _didn't_ consider himself a Saiyan! It all made sense! The strange environment, the idiotic clothes, fighting against a PTO warrior. He truly acted like an alien on some backwater planet.

 _He must have hit his head,_ Bardock thought with a frown.

 _He hit his head on his mission and grew up in ignorance of his Saiyan heritage, so when Raditz came it was too late. He fought him and they both ended up dead. I have to stop that from happening! I know that I'm meant to die here, but Kakarot and Raditz are destined to live far longer. I need to ensure that Kakarot doesn't wind up with brain damage, because then I'll have two successors who can avenge our race._

Bardock had no idea how to do that though. Raditz was off world and Kakarot had just been born a few days ago. An idea suddenly struck him as he dashed off to the planets pod station, specifically the one for infants. Bardock took off flying through the roof of the hospital, making it to the departure area in just a few short minutes. Just as he suspected, Kakarot was in the process of being sent away. He landed and walked up to the pod.

The two guards noticed him immediately. "You're not supposed to-" Bardock snapped the man's neck before he finished. The other raced toward him but Bardock disintegrated him. That left baby Kakarot. Bardock looked down at the child.

"Your future is one filled with retardation and betrayal. Your existence does nothing but cement the pointless death of our mighty race. Your power level of two and my blood in your veins does nothing to help your case," Bardock said coldly as he glared down at his young son. The baby looked up, smiling in return. Bardock checked the coordinates of the destination before fiddling with his scouter. A few minutes later, he was done. He took off his scouter before tucking it away safely in one of the compartments of Kakarot's pod. He patted the child on the head before throwing him gently into the spaceship. He took the time to stock the craft with extra supplies before he closed the door and pressed a large red button. Baby Kakarot rocketed off before his eyes.

"It's a shame I'll never get to know you, my son. I can only hope that I've done enough to save you from the cruel fate of amnesia, but one way or another I just know that you will avenge me and our race."

The tanned warrior then calmly took a seat at one of the many office chairs of the hangar, resting his feet on the desk in front of him and leaning back so that he was in a lying down position. His arms went to the back of his head as closed his eyes, welcoming the end. Eventually, the planet exploded and the Saiyans were all but wiped out, Bardock has no regrets in his last moments though. He knew his death had not been in vain. The proud warrior died with a smile on his face, for he knew his sons would carry out what he could not. Frieza was doomed.

 _Two years later._

A bloodied Raditz landed in a heap on the unforgiving floor. He cradled his broken arm and tried to ignore the massive cut on his forehead that made him feel faint. It wasn't fair, why was Vegeta so strong? It was a relentless cycle; Vegeta would get frustrated by Frieza and then he would take it out on Raditz. He always beat him mercilessly and he would order Nappa to join in. What was Raditz meant to do against two older, stronger men who roughed him up practically every other day?

"Fuck those guys," Raditz sniffled as he rested against the wall. He was sick of it, the way the prince (and everyone else for that matter) treated him. He was tired of getting held down and beaten by Vegeta and his bodyguard, and he was tired of being a slave to Frieza! But what could he do? He was just a low class, and he was only six years old! The son of Bardock sighed in defeat as he played about with his scouter. Maybe searching a few his personal files would lift his spirits, or at least take his mind off of the pain from his broken arm. He wasn't allowed to use the healing tank.

He cycled through his files on the scouter, but it was boring. He didn't have much, and he had gone over his things many times. A picture of his family, some old assignment briefs, and an electronic book of Saiyan history. It was nothing new, considering he had the printed versions of all these things hidden in a small box of his belongings. Bored, the six year old boy searched his files once more. He almost did a double take when he saw an unfamiliar file. "What _is_ this?"

It was a folder, meaning it contained several files. Raditz was interested by the title especially- "Vengeance." It was intriguing. Raditz couldn't help but open it. He selected the file.

There were three things in the folder. Raditz chose the first one, an audio file. It began to play, and his jaw dropped when he recognised his father's voice. He listened intently.

" _Raditz, or Kakarot, whoever is listening to this, hopefully one of you two. It's Bardock, your father, in case you don't remember my voice. Don't get your hopes up, I'll be dead by the time you listen to this, whenever that may be. Raditz, I know I treated you like shit, but I need you to carry out my orders no matter what. Your brother Kakarot is in serious trouble; it's up to you to save him. On his mission he's going to hit his head and end up forgetting his purpose. You need to stop that from ever happening. I am not exaggerating when I tell you our entire race is relying on you. Frieza killed us- yes I know that's hard to believe, but it's true. He probably lied to you, in fact I'd bet my life on it, if I still had one!" Bardock roared in laughter._

Raditz felt tears stream down his face. His father had never loved him but the young boy still yearned for his parents. He hadn't seen them in two years. He had left on a mission shortly before the destruction of Vegeta-Sei.

" _I wonder how you're reacting to this, but I hope you're mad. Raditz my boy, you need to leave the PTO, easier said than done I know but you must escape so that you can train and be able to kill Frieza. Your brother is on a planet called Earth. Go there and make him into a Saiyan warrior, and for the love of God, don't fucking kill each other… Where was I again? Oh right. Get stronger. One day, you need to avenge me and kill Frieza. You may have been the weakling of our planet but I believe in you. I'll let you in on a secret; class means nothing. Look at me, I'm a low class yet I'm the strongest Saiyan to ever live! You probably didn't know that but it's one hundred percent true. Right now my power stands at 12,000 units. But that means nothing now. In this folder you'll find two other files my son. Go check them out. Coordinates to the planet Earth are on one of them. Head there and train your brother as I said before. The last file is instructions on how to disconnect a space pod from the intelligence network. Follow them and make your pod untraceable before leaving for Earth. I know we had our ups and downs son, but trust me, if you stay with Frieza you'll die a meaningless death, one you are far too good for. I… Grr, I love you son. Fuck, Gine rubs off on me. I've gone soft… Good luck, Raditz."_

Raditz didn't move for hours after that. Understandably so, not only had his entire world been turned upside, but the boy was heavily injured. He sat there, bleeding and playing his father's monologue on repeat the entire time. Could he really kill Frieza?

"Father believes in me. I can be great just like him, I am his son after all! My brother's out there all alone. I can't allow him to become a disgrace!" said Raditz ironically. "Fuck Vegeta, I'm gonna go to earth and become so strong that I can come back and hurt him…" Raditz suddenly had a malicious look in his eye. He was known for being brutal, since he wasn't stronger than many people so he relished the feeling of power when up against weaker opponents, not to mention violence was in every fibre of his being.

A spiteful Raditz waited until the other Saiyans fell asleep before he snuck off in the dead of the night, destroying the tracking devices in his pod and grabbing his few belongings before punching in the coordinates for Earth. Despite shaking the entire time with nervousness, he managed to take off undetected. He killed the weak guard, Appule, and followed the instructions. It was hard to believe, but he had escaped the clutches of Frieza… For now.

"I'll bide my time. I'll become strong. You all laughed at the weakling Raditz, but just wait… I'm going to kill all of you one day! Vegeta! Nappa! Frieza! Zarbon! You bastards… Watch when I get back, I'll be strong. I have to be.

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